Sky ride from downtown to Balboa Park proposed

In this photo mashup, an aerial gondola is superimposed onto a view down Cedar Street toward the County Administration Center. It's an idea from urban designer Howard Blackson for linking San Diego Bay and Balboa Park in a fun and entertaining way -- and to reduce car trips with an alternative transportation format.
— - Howard Blackson

In this photo mashup, an aerial gondola is superimposed onto a view down Cedar Street toward the County Administration Center. It's an idea from urban designer Howard Blackson for linking San Diego Bay and Balboa Park in a fun and entertaining way -- and to reduce car trips with an alternative transportation format.
/ - Howard Blackson

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO  Want to ride in the sky ride from downtown San Diego to Balboa Park and back?

That could become a reality if a study proposed by county Supervisor Ron Roberts finds the project affordable.

And if it does, why not go for it? Roberts said Friday.

“I keep thinking San Diego gets so serious about things that we forget to have fun,” he said. “There are things we should be doing to celebrate the city and let people enjoy its beauty. What better place in the world to have an aerial tram?”

Roberts is expected to win unanimous approval from fellow supervisors next Tuesday for his request to spend $75,000 in county Neighborhood Reinvestment Program money to hire a consultant to study for his aerial gondola.

While various proposals for trams or gondolas in the city have been floated in recent years, Roberts said he’s toyed with the notion for nearly a decade, stretching back to when he and former state Sen. Steve Peace were contemplating different concepts for downtown waterfront development.

A similar idea has been offered by urban designer Howard Blackson, and last month students from San Diego’s NewSchool of Architecture and Design talked about a gondola or zip line attached to or strung from the Interstate 805 bridge.

Re-elected earlier this month to his sixth and final supervisor term under term limits adopted in 2010, Robert said it was time to raise the idea once again.

“I’ve only got four years left to do good things and I’ve been harboring this for quite some time. I figured that instead of just visualizing it, let’s do a feasibility study.”

The study includes a look at the logistics of the infrastructure that would be required and a rough idea of the costs.

One scenario envisions a downtown terminus at the trolley station between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Elevated gondola cars holding multiple, paying passengers for a roughly two-mile ride to somewhere around the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.

“You want to be in the places where you can capture a lot of foot traffic and tourists,” Roberts said.

Yes
79% (729)

No
21% (192)

921 total votes.

“The gondola here would have a number of units because you want it to be an effective means of transportation,” he said. “Imagine the vistas you could get of downtown, the bay and the park. The whole thing is in the very embryonic stage, but I’m excited about it.”

His proposal calls for SANDAG, the San Diego-based regional transportation agency, the manage the study, which he said should take two or three months to complete.

He’s spoken privately with representatives of several downtown groups and received a positive response from all, Roberts said.

Another idea that would change the cityscape resurfaced last month when Supervisor Greg Cox secured $75,000 in county funds for a study of an enclosed bike and pedestrian tube beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

That study also being managed by SANDAG is examining whether the nearly half-century-old bridge has sufficient structural and seismic integrity to support an attached pathway. It also will consider public safety and emergency response issues and potential concerns from the Navy, which needs about 200 feet clearance for ship antennas to pass beneath the bridge.